Since 25 July2016 players have been able to use bonus experience and gain direct experience through lamps on Invention provided that they have completed the Invention Tutorial. Invention being an elite skill, the experience rewards are halved when they are not level-dependent and when they scale by level, double amount of rewards are needed to progress one level compared to regular skills. Until 19 September2016 all experience rewards used a flat 50% experience reduction.

Bonus experience is applied when disassembling or siphoning tools or combat equipment, but other boosts will not.

During Bonus XP Weekends item experience and Invention experience not given by disassembling or siphoning augmented items are boosted by 50%. Other modifiers, including Clan avatars and the Wisdom aura, are also applied to items' experience gains rather than Invention experience from disassembly. Disassembling or siphoning augmented items receive no boosts during Bonus XP Weekends.

While levelling Invention players are able to pursue specialisations by choosing different tech trees. The type of tech tree that the player selects determines what items can be unlocked and manufactured first, by providing different sets of blueprints. Invention features 3 tech trees. All players use the basic human tech tree when they begin training the skill. Once the player reaches level 40 they are given the option to specialise in either the cave goblin tech tree or dwarven tech tree.

At an Inventor's workbench, using their current blueprints, the player can discover new materials, devices, and machines in a process called discovery.[3] Unlocking a new device or material will give a one time chunk of experience after which the player will be able to build and use the device or material.

The discovery process involves a micropuzzle where the player arranges modules to optimise the experience earned for their discovery. The process indicates how well optimised the modules are, with each optimisation level providing additional XP. At the least optimised "Poor" level, no additional XP is awarded. Satisfactory awards +100%, Good +200%, Excellent +300%, and Perfect +400% (effectively five-times the base XP). The ideal order of modules is random for each player.

Players are able to break down items (including noted stacks) by dragging them into their Invention pouch, which is located in the inventory interface, next to the bond pouch, or by using the Disassemble ability from their spellbook.[4] This gives a small amount of Invention experience and produces materials. Each item also has a junk chance, dependent on its tier.[1]

The materials produced are a mixture of common materials, called parts, and rarer materials, called components. Components have more powerful applications than parts.[2] Some specific components are only obtainable from particular items. Players are able to obtain materials even if they do not have the Invention level required to use them. It is possible for an item to give up to 12 standard components as well as up to 7 rare components upon being dismantled. The number of materials given will depend on the value, nature and size of the item dismantled.[1]

Obtained materials are stored in the weapon or armour gizmo shell interface, with the tool gizmo shell interface planned for a future update. Materials can be used to create devices or to augment weapons or armour, after the player has unlocked the ability to do so. It is possible to disassemble noted items.

Players are able to use the Analyse ability to determine the materials that may be obtained from breaking down an item. This opens the Material Analysis interface which will display the junk chance rate for the item, as well as a list of the materials that may possibly be gained from it. Materials are rated as being obtained often, sometimes, rarely, or special.

Players are able to augment certain tools, weapons, shields, torso-, and leg-slot armours. To do so, one must first build and apply an augmentor to an item. The augmented item can then have a gizmo with perks applied to it and be levelled up. Augmenting an item will make it untradeable and you will not be able to return an item to its original tradeable version without using an Augmentation dissolver.

Perks are mechanical effects that may be positive or negative. Some perks are new, though most are generally already found elsewhere in the game. For example, the occasional damage reduction effect of Warpriest of Saradomin armour can be granted by a perk, though it is less effective than this armour's effect (equivalent to wearing around 3 pieces of the set).[2]

To create perks, a player must craft and fill a gizmo shell with materials. Each gizmo shell has 5 slots that can be filled. After filling the gizmo shell, the player will be able to choose which perks they wish to make out of the range of possible perks that can be made from the materials inserted. Gizmos can be socketed onto an augmented item to impart its perks to that item. Creating a gizmo will grant Invention experience for each material that is used up. Using rarer materials grants more experience.[2]

Each material may produce a variety of perks. Additionally, perks may be of different tiers – up to 5 ranks for certain perks[5] – and materials are weighted in their likelihood of making different levels of a given perk. Materials are balanced so that adding the same material to all 5 slots of a gizmo shell will result in the creation of 1 slightly negative perk and 1 slightly positive perk; therefore, players will need use a mixture of different materials – aiming to leverage the positive effects of each and avoid the negatives of each – in order to create a gizmo with a net-positive effect.[2] The term "prototyping" refers to this process of trying to create useful gizmos from experimenting with different combinations of perks.

Two-handed weaponry allows the attachment of two gizmos, each with up to 2 perks, while only one gizmo may be attached to one-handed weaponry.

Once an item has been augmented it will gain experience and advance levels when it is used in combat. Levelling an item increases the experience and materials received when disassembling it. The maximum level achievable is dependent on research.

An augmented item receives a proportion of the base combat experience that the player earns when killing a monster. The base value, which applies to armour and main-hand weapons, is 4%; two-handed weapons gain 50% more for 6% total, and off-hand weapons gain half as much for 2% total. Killing players does not increase the gear's experience.

Levelling a piece of equipment from level 1–10 increases the amount of stored Invention experience that is contained within it each time that its level increases. Although items can be levelled up to a maximum of level 20 at 99 Invention, the maximum amount of experience that can be earned from an item caps at level 10, with equipment siphons requiring level 12 to get the same amount.

There are two options when claiming the experience from augmented items:

Fully disassemble both item and any gizmos for full Invention experience and materials.

Use an equipment siphon, retaining both the item and any perks, for experience equal to disassembling it at 2 levels lower. The equipment siphon can be made by the player at level 27 or bought from the Grand Exchange. The equipment dissolver needs to be unlocked first then it will give the option to learn to make the siphon.

Any augmented equipment that has the same level will give the same amount of Invention experience when disassembled. However, it should be faster to level higher tier equipment as equipment's experience gains are dependent on the amount of combat experience earned by the player. Additionally the rate of levelling will be balanced by number of slots; so a two handed weapon will level twice as fast as a one handed weapon and as fast as dual wielded weapons.

Players will need to use charge packs to run their augmented equipment. The player's charge pack will be stored on their character's tool belt and will be shared by all augmented equipment that the player uses. It will be powered by divine charges created from divine energy. The amount of divine charges used by a item will depend on its drain rate. Using higher level divine energy should be more economical for creating divine charges. It will cost 225 incandescent energy to create a divine charge, or larger quantities of lower-tier energy. On death, any augmented equipment not protected drains 2 hours worth of drain rate from the charge pack; e.g. an item that drains 1 charge/second will drain 7200 charges.

Itemlevel

Itemexperience

Invention experience (tier 80)

Item effects

Disassembly

Siphon

GP/XP

1

0

0

N/A

N/A

2

1,160

9,000

Disassembling this item has a 50% chance to return installed gizmos.

3

2,607

27,000

Disassembling this item gives double materials.

4

5,176

54,000

9,000

24.11

Disassembling this item never gives junk.

5

8,286

108,000

27,000

8.04

This item drains 10% less charge when used.

6

11,760

144,000

54,000

4.02

Disassembling this item gives triple materials.

7

15,835

198,000

108,000

2.01

Disassembling this item gives an extra random uncommon material.

8

21,152

270,000

144,000

1.51

Disassembling this item returns all installed gizmos.

9

28,761

378,000

198,000

1.10

Disassembling this item gives quadruple materials.

10

40,120

540,000

270,000

0.80

Disassembling this item gives the maximum extra Invention XP.

11

57,095

378,000

0.57

N/A

12

81,960

540,000

0.40

Siphoning this item gives the maximum extra Invention XP.

13

117,397

0.20

Siphoning this item has a 50% chance to not consume the siphon.

14

166,496

This item drains 12.5% less charge when used.

15

232,886

This item can now be used with an Equipment separator.

16

320,080

0.00

Siphoning this item no longer consumes the siphon.

17

432,785

Using the Equipment separator on this item has a 25% chance to not consume the separator.

18

575,592

This item drains 15% less charge when used.

19

753,631

Using the Equipment separator on this item has a 50% chance to not consume the separator.

Materials can also be used to create an array of different devices, each with its own use or effect. Some devices are used specifically as part of the invention skill, while others have purposes related to various other skills.

Equipment siphons are used to extract stored Invention experience from levelled up equipment without destroying the item through disassembly. Instead, its level is reset, rewarding the player with a lower amount of Invention experience than disassembly, equivalent to that which would have been gained from a piece of equipment 2 levels lower.[2]

Woodcutting, Mining and Fishing accumulators are charged up when the player fails to gain resources while skilling (similar to urns which fill as resources are obtained) and can be teleported away to gain experience when they are fully charged.[2]

Invention was originally planned to have a different experience-per-level relationship to previous skills, with the skill being slower to level at lower levels. It was mentioned that the new halfway to 99 level would have been level 77 and not 92. The maximum virtual level for this skill would have been level 150.

However, in a Developer Q&A it was announced that the previously planned experience curve had been abandoned, due to play testers finding the "flatter" experience curve dissatisfying. As a result, Invention now has a more "traditional curve".[7] Level 84 is halfway to 99 (as opposed to level 92 in other skills). Invention is a little slower to progress at early levels compared to other skills, but faster to level at higher levels.[1]

Unlike other skills, the major aspects of Invention are available from level 1, with higher levels unlocking extras such as rarer materials and passive upgrades.[8]

Invention, along with Divination, was first mentioned by Mod Mark in the fourth live Q&A session. One, Divination, would be a gathering skill like Mining and Woodcutting. The other, Invention, would be a production skill like Crafting. In a November 2012 Behind the Scenes, the new skills were described as "designed to suit the old-school, yet complement the entire game" since they were modelled "on some of our oldest and dearest content." The August 2013 Behind the Scenes pushed the time for the second skill back to 2014.

During RuneFest 2013 the second skill was revealed to be the Invention skill.

In January 2014, a Power to the Players dragonstone poll included the Invention skill versus the elf city Prifddinas. The winner was the elf city (ETA July/August), resulting in the Invention skill to be developed at a later time.

During March 2015, Invention was confirmed to soon be integrated in many skills instead of being a standalone skill, possibly with its own ranking highscores table.[10] On 2 June 2015, Invention was again confirmed to be planned as a skill in a Twitch Q&A stream, but was referred to as an elite skill. This was confirmed in the official podcast of 11 June 2015.[2]

During RuneFest 2015, it was revealed that Invention would allow for perks to be added to items. During this RuneFest a total of 187 perks were shown in a presentation slide. Additionally, concept art from RuneFest 2015 suggested that Invention may include the ability for a player to become a guild master. The player could then be able to build machines and decorations in the guild, using a hotspot system similar to the one used in the player-owned houses system; build various workshops including cave goblin workshop, dwarven workshop, and human Divination workshop, and be able to employ people to work in the built workshops. The examples of NPCs who could potentially be hired included Oldak and Professor Oddenstein.

Invention Batch II was released on 18 September2017 to address unfinished parts of the skill by introducing new content, especially at higher levels, as well as introducing some quality of life improvements. New content includes the addition of machines to the skill, and 12 new devices. Some of the quality of life improvements included the removal of the Inspiration mechanic, tradeable augmentors, and a toggle for the display of cogs on augmented equipment.[6]

The level 90 weapons seen in the concept art are combinations of currently existing weapons in game, though this concept was scrapped later on.

Invention is the fastest skill that a player has reached skill mastery in since its release. The first player to achieve 99 Invention did it within 20 hours of the skill's release. This record was previously Construction with an 8-day lapse.

The first player to achieve level 120 Invention did so merely 38 hours after its release, at 00:50:54 GMT on 27 January 2016.

The first player to achieve 200 million experience in Invention did so within six days after the initial release of the skill.

During Runefest 2015, it was stated that because Invention is aimed at high-level players, they would only allow higher-level equipment to be augmentable in order to prevent dead content. As a result, it was stated that it would only include tier 70+ weapons, armour, and tools, as well as fishing rods and some joke weapons.

The skill was stated by Mod Mark in Runefest 2014 to be mortals' defence against the gods. The Godless were planned on being heavily featured in the skill, but this idea was later scrapped.

There are many unused perk icons in the cache, but Mod Shauny confirmed that most of those perks don't have any code.

Due to invention's status as an elite skill, it is treated differently when considering your lowest level. For instance, Tears of Guthix and Guthixian butterflies may not recognise it as your lowest skill due to having more experience than other skills. On the other hand, meteorite chunks and space dust may treat it as one of your lowest levels despite having higher levels of experience.

After Invention Batch 2, augmentors became tradable within the Grand Exchange.